Better The DEVIL You know

The Tasmanian devil helps protect the island against invasive species, so no wonder conservationists are doing all they can to save it from extinction.

- James Fair

Marrawah, in Tasmania’s far north-west, is truly one of those places that feel like the end of the world. Cut off from the rest of the island by an expanse of temperate rainforest and with nothing to the west but some 15,000km of Southern Ocean (until you hit Argentine), it is also one of the best places on Earth to come face to face with the devil.

The Tasmanian devil, that is. Until his untimely death in 2013, beef farmer-turned conservationist Geoff King ran the renowned ‘Devil Restaurant’ here. The menu was pretty basic: a single roadkill wallaby or wombat (staked out in front of a wooden hide, no seasoning required) that lured diners by the bus-load. “One night I saw 13 different devils,” Geoff told me when I visited the restaurant back in 2005. “The next night I saw 22. I can tell them apart by the white stripes on their chests.”

My own visit to the ‘restaurant’ saw two hungry customers come to sample the cuisine – an old male with half his lower lip missing and worn fur on his backside, and a young female who almost passed for pretty. The male fed for some 40 minutes, during which time, Geoff said, he could have eaten 2.5kg or 25 per cent of his bodyweight. His feasting was accompanied by the sounds of cracking bones and tearing sinews that were transported into the hide by Geoff’s unconventional use of a baby monitor.

STORM WARNING

But even there was a cloud on the horizon. Devil Facial Tumour Disease (DFTD), an infectious, viral-induced cancer, had taken hold, wiping out the species in many parts of the south and east of Tasmania, reducing the overall population by an estimated 80 per cent and marching north and west – towards Marrawah. “I’m not sure I want to be doing this when it arrives,” Geoff said.